Robert De Niro will be living in upstate New York “for the foreseeable future” because of the coronavirus pandemic, his lawyer said during a court hearing Thursday.
The “The Irishman” actor attended a Skype hearing in his divorce case with Grace Hightower in which she was asking a judge to order De Niro to raise her monthly credit card limit from $50,000 to $100,000 and give her access to his upstate three-home compound.
De Niro’s lawyer, Caroline Krauss, told the judge that his estranged wife and their two kids should not be granted exclusive use of the “Gardiner property” — an apparent reference to an Ulster county town — as the “Raging Bull” star and his other children and grandchildren plan to continue to stay there.
“He intends to reside in Gardiner for the foreseeable future,” Krauss said of De Niro — who grew up in Manhattan and has deep roots in the city. “He is after all 76 and in the category of people for which COVID-19 is dangerous.”
“Mr. De Niro’s other children are there. His grandchildren are there. Mr. De Niro’s son has a medical condition and he will die if he gets COVID,” Krauss said.
Hightower’s lawyer, Kevin McDonough, said the pair and their two kids — Helen, 8, and Elliot, 21 — have been going there “for the last 15 years.” McDonough requested that Hightower and the children get “exclusive” use of the sprawling property from July 10 through July 15 and July 31 through Aug. 15 as the trio has been forced to remain in Manhattan at a Central Park home throughout the pandemic.
McDonough also noted it should be considered marital property to be shared because there were “tens and tens of millions that went into creating the home” together.
But Krauss said De Niro has had the home since 1996, before the couple started a relationship a year later.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Matthew ultimately ruled that De Niro should pay Hightower an additional $75,000, which “should allow Ms. Hightower to be able to obtain some place to be able to take respite from the streets of New York City … in lieu of granting use of the Gardiner residence.”
De Niro — who has been with Hightower on and off since 1997 — filed for divorce in 2018. The pair initially split in 1999 but reunited in 2004.